Manny Pacquiao won’t fix the Hall of Fame’s blind spots. The process needs an overhaul | Thomas Hauser I don't think this guy gets the idea of "Fame". He also thinks we don't watch the fights.
All the unworthy guys he mentioned deserve to be in before pazienza. Haymon won't show up to the ceremony anyway so why elect him ? Other publicists being in certainly warrants hoppers election. If he worked for arum instead of king he'd be in
Hauser's a fuckin idiot. Outraged that Paz gets in (which is valid). His alternatives: Jermain Taylor, Pavlik, and Cooney. You gotta be fuckin kidding me... Jermain isn't even the most deserving TAYLOR. Meldrick belongs in the Hall, not Jermain. Pavlik COULD HAVE and WOULD HAVE been in the Hall, but the booze cut his career too short for him to deserve it. And Gerry Cooney is simply not a HOFmer, I'm sorry. There are quite literally COUNTLESS non-heavyweights who deserve the Hall before Gerry Cooney.
The best part of the article is this paragraph Sean Gibbons weaseled his way into becoming a player basically by becoming pacquaio's guy. He used to be top ranks b side procurer bringing in midwest scrubs like Marty jacubowski to take ass whipping. Best thing he ever did was punching some fans who attacked Orlando salido after a fight Then you got lee "minty" groves as we called him back in the vhs fight trading days. He'd request mint quality fights then send back some barely watchable bullshit Ratner was poor at best running nsac before leaving to become a cage jockey You can see him ringside convincing lane to let the holyfield fight continue after Tyson bit him the first time
That's precisely my point. Pazienza might not deserve to be in there but to give nominations to others like Taylor and Cooney is ridiculous given that at least Pazienza win a title (Cooney didn't, and could have done so in the fragmenting era of the early 80s) and Taylor was steered into an eminently winnable fight with an aging champ and LOST THE REMATCH before going on TO DRAW with Wonky Wright and then start putting together a very high profile losing streak. Hauser, typically, cannot just be happy with the general flaws in Pazienza as a candidate. He has to introduce extraneous shit which undermines his position. Pazienza was a face first lightweight who blew up to fight naturally bigger guys. Some of them he did away with like Rosenblatt. Other guys like Jones and Graham exposed his shortcomings, something big slick fighters should have done against a guy whose best days were at 135 and who had suffered a horrific car accident which could have ended his life never mind just his career. If Pazienza had done what he'd done in the 1920s, winning a lightweight title and getting slapped around by Tiger Flowers or Max Schmelling then he'd be in the HOF already.
Let's face it: Hauser is the Sam Harris of boxing. Employs a soft voice bullshit approach to trick people into believing he's some sort of seer. His problem with Pazienza is simple: he doesn't like aggressive face-first Guido's who took steroids. They offend his refined pallette. Fine. Just say that. Lou Duva unjustifiably charged into the ring and attacked Roger Mayweather and got smacked about. Is Duva in the HOF, Thomas?
Agreed. Maybe those guys were memorable or even at or near the top of the sport for a bit I don't see them as worthy. The Hall of Fame is for the elite, not fighters who could hang with them for a bit.
Cooney and Taylor both have a LOT in common. In Taylor's case, he was successfully steered into a title shot against a guy perceived to be "ready" to be taken. Same with Cooney, just he was unsuccessful. Both guys basically went backwards from that night on. I don't class either as HOF. Again, Cooney, if he'd stayed straight, could have won an alphabet title just like Coetzee did. Pavlik did to Taylor what had been expected Cooney would do to Holmes. He, Pavlik, just like Taylor, went backwards after his biggest wins. None of these guys are ATG or even close to it. How the fuck do you LOSE to Froch and get into the HOF a few years later? It's not just the losses, it's their nature. Devastating stoppage losses from a winning position. Is Froch destined for the HOF? Hauser is out of his mind and thinks it's 1999 where him and a handful of scribes rule the roost .
I've enjoyed some of Hauser's work over the years, but on this occasion he's identified a problem [Paz's induction] and given solutions that would make the problem even worse [Cooney's proposed induction] A bizarre article.
Had no idea. Don't follow it (HoF) as such. And Froch should have been made to wait. Just how I feel. He's too recently retired. Call me crazy but Pazienza would have lost to Froch but only after Froch unnecessarily got involved in a brawl.
Follow boxing or follow the ins and outs of a clique? Don't follow the HoF inductions until a guy comes along and suggests crap. As far as I am concerned it's an afterthought right up to the point somebody tries to tell me about Cooney. Hauser chats bono shit about Cooney today having spent years drawling into a camera about White Hopes etc etc. Today, like most North Americans, he pines for that which he once dismissed and sneered at but tried to come across as erudite and civilised by crying about Pazienza. He should fuck off and watch Seinfeld reruns and cry.
